The Spirited Business (Paperback)

I picked this book up at the airport on my way to a weeks holiday. I was tired and unsure about which direction my work would be taking me in the coming 12 months. This well written, researched and informative book filled me with inspiration and enthusiasm. I cvame back renewed and motivated to go back into the Corporate world in order to help those who were brave enough to stand up for their beliefs in wanting to make a difference to the people in their organisation. The Spirited business will be instrumental in people attempting to change their organisations once they have read it. I unreservedly recommend it.

Would it be possible to bring to the workplace the values that we embrace in our family and home, in our church and mosque, in our social and community organisations, or are the fundamental divisions between capital and labour in post-capitalist societies just too great to bridge?

Georgeanne Lamont believes that "There are companies that quietly but firmly take away your soul" and her book "The Spirited Business" is sub-titled "success stories of soul-friendly companies". She insists: "The soul perceives those things that our physical senses alone cannot grasp: courage, truth, goodness, beauty, forgiveness, kindness, trust and joy". Does this sound like your company?

The alternative to most companies is what the author describes as "the spirited business". She asserts: "The resource that most organisations have not yet acknowledged and which releases fresh strength and reduces waste is that of the spirit. It clears away low morale, conflict and resentment and in their place provides trust, vision, courage, creativity, patience, integrity, connectivity and community".

Surely in a tough, competitive marketplace no company can really operate in accordance with such principles? Yet the core of Georgeanne Lamont's book is case studies of seven companies that are both "soul-friendly" and profitable:

· Happy Computers - a large independent computer training facility
· Peach Personnel - a personnel recruitment company
· Microsoft UK - the British component of the global software giant
· Industrial Maintenance Group - provider of materials for the maintenance industry
· NatWest's London North Region - a section of the major high street bank
· Scott Bader - a manufacturing chemical company
· Bayer UK - the British arm of a German multinational

What is so special about the management style and culture of these companies? Many of the answers are so blindingly obvious as to sound simplistic: providing a physically attractive place of work, having flexible work practices that accommodate personal and family needs, offering lots of training, mentoring and constant feed-back, building teams with a shared vision, providing comprehensive and honest information, operating a no blame culture and encouraging creativity and risk-taking, making time for reflection and celebration.

How can one bring such qualities into companies that want to succeed, but through valuing rather than exploiting people? Georgeanne Lamont believes that the answer is to use what she calls "tools of reflection" that borrow from, but are not dependent on, various religious traditions (she herself is a Quaker). These tools are stillness, listening, story, encounter, celebration, grieving, visioning, and journaling - each of which is explained.

She insists: "The book involves spirituality but it is not about religion nor is it an esoteric practice meant only for a few. It is a robust spirituality that is relevant to those of all faiths as well as those of no faith" (that's me). Of course, the ultimate test is whether companies will pay for this sort of transformative process and whether they will obtain what they seek.

Georgeanne Lamont has 13 years experience as a trainer and she has now formed a training consultancy called SpiritWorks to offer this vision and these values. It deserves to succeed. Meanwhile "The Spirited Business" is celebration, inspiration and motivation.

The very fact that there are individuals and organisations in the world today who are dedicated to the greater good of humankind is admirable although not totally revolutionary. The fact that it's working so effectively in the businesses featured in Lamont's writings is truly aspirational.

In addition to the numerous success stories of soul-friendly companies the book is filled with a plethora of user-friendly tools for health-checking and transforming the workplace as we know it.

Instead of concentrating so many resources at such great expense on regulating best practice in business today, I suggest that, as terms of employment, we simply issue every person in the workplace their own copy of "The Spirited Business". The HR department can then simply say, "Read this - and live it. It's how we do things in this organisation."

In addition to being a fast and easy read, this is an essential reference book for 21st century business success.